was an

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

, and the 10th ''

daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji era, Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast, hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and n ...

'' of Kaga Domain in the

Hokuriku region The was located in the northwestern part of Honshu, the main island of Japan. It lay along the Sea of Japan within the Chūbu region, which it is currently a part of. It is almost equivalent to Koshi Province and Hokurikudō area in pre-modern ...

of Japan. He was the 11th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa

Maeda clan was a Japanese samurai clan who occupied most of the Hokuriku region of central Honshū from the end of the Sengoku period through the Meiji restoration of 1868. The Maeda claimed descent from the Sugawara clan of Sugawara no Kiyotomo and Sugaw ...

. Harunaga was born in

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 466,029 in 203,271 households, and a population density of 990 persons per km2. The total area of the city was . Overview Cityscape File:もてな ...

as Tokijiro (時次郎), the tenth son of

Maeda Yoshinori was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 5th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 6th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. Yoshinori was the third son of Maeda Tsunanori. His mother was a comm ...

. His mother was a concubine and he was initially destined for the

Jōdo Shinshū , also known as Shin Buddhism or True Pure Land Buddhism, is a school of Pure Land Buddhism. It was founded by the former Tendai Japanese monk Shinran. Shin Buddhism is the most widely practiced branch of Buddhism in Japan. History Shinran ( ...

priesthood, and was ordained as a priest at the temple of Shōkō-ji in Toyama in 1746; however, with so many of his brothers dying untimely deaths during the ''

O-Ie Sōdō O-Ie Sōdō (, "house strife") were noble family disputes within the samurai and aristocratic classes of Japan, particularly during the early Edo period (17th century). The most famous is the '' Date Sōdō'', which broke out among the Date family ...

'' known as the “Kaga Sōdō” he returned to secular life in 1768 under the name of Maeda Toshiari (利有). In 1771, his brother

Maeda Shigemichi was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 9th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 10th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. Shigemichi was born in Kanazawa as Kenjiro (健次郎), the seventh ...

officially retired, and he became ''daimyō''. He was received in formal audience by ''

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamakur ...

Tokugawa Ieharu Tokugawa Ieharu (徳川家治) (June 20, 1737 – September 17, 1786) was the tenth ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, who held office from 1760 to 1786. His childhood name was Takechiyo (竹千代). Ieharu died in 1786 and given t ...

the same year, and was granted a ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' from Ieharu's name, becoming Maeda Harunaga. In 1792, he established the Kaga Domain's

han school The was an educational institution in the Edo period of Japan, originally established to educate children of ''daimyō'' (feudal lords) and their retainers in the domains outside of the capital. These institutions were also known as ''hangaku' ...

, Meirin-dō, and is also noted for restoring the famed

Kenroku-en Kenroku-en (兼六園, Six Attributes Garden), located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden. Along with Kairaku-en and Kōraku-en, Kenroku-en is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. The grounds are open year-round except ...

gardens. Shigemichi had a son, Maeda Naritaka, after he retired, whom Harunaga adopted in 1791; however, he died in 1795. Harunaga then adopted Shigemichi's second son,

Maeda Narinaga was an Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 11th ''daimyō'' of Kaga Domain in the Hokuriku region of Japan. He was the 12th hereditary chieftain of the Kanazawa Maeda clan. Narinaga was born in Kanazawa as Kamemachi (亀万千) later Katsu ...

. Although Harunaga married a daughter of

Maeda Toshimichi Maeda (前田 lit. "previous rice field") is a Japanese surname. An archaic romanization includes Mayeda. It can refer to: People Maeda clan One of the traditional Japanese clans and prominent family during the Sengoku period of Japanese history: ...

and had his own son, Toshinobu in 1800, when he retired, he turned the domain over to Shigemichi's son, Narinaga. Narinaga then adopted Toshinobu as heir, but Toshinobu died in 1805. Harunaga lived to 1810.

Family

*Father:

(1690–1745) *Mother: Onatsu no Kata later Jusei’in *Wife: Maeda Masahime *Concubine: Ito no Kata later Chikoin *son: Maeda Toshinobu (1800-1805) by Ito *Adopted Sons: ** Maeda Naritaka (1778-1795) **

References

* Papinot, Edmond. (1948). ''Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan''. New York: Overbeck Co.

External links

Kaga Domain on "Edo 300 HTML"
(3 November 2007) 1745 births 1810 deaths People of Edo-period Japan Maeda clan Tozama daimyo Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priests {{Daimyo-stub